<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/7/8/882694/-To-BP:-the-meters-runningyou-spill-it,-you-buy-it">http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/7/8/882694/-To-BP:-the-meters-runningyou-spill-it,-you-buy-it</a><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><blockquote type="cite"><h2><span class="diaryTitle">To BP: the meter's running - you spill it,
you buy it</span> </h2><h3 class="byline">by <a href="http://chellie-pingree.dailykos.com">Chellie Pingree</a>
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</div><h4 class="date">Thu Jul 08, 2010 at 11:33:22 AM PDT</h4>
<div class="intro"><div>
<br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><p>Seeing the picture spreading on the Internet of <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/therachelmaddowshow/4667450260/">a
sign at a BP gas station</a> with the company policy "you are
responsible for all spills" made me think of something. </p><p>Let’s say you are filling your car at a BP gas station, the numbers
on the pump steadily ticking. But when you pull out the pump you give it
an extra squeeze, spilling oil on the ground. The meter on the pump
just keeps rolling. In other words, you spill it, you buy it.</p><div>
<br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><p><a href="http://pingree.house.gov/issues/oilspill/counter.shtml">
</a></p></div></blockquote><div class="entry"><ul class="catcom"><li></li><li> </li></ul> </div>
<div id="extended"><div>
<br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><p>Unfortunately, we aren’t holding oil companies accountable to the
same policy they hold their patrons. I’ve introduced <a href="http://pingree.house.gov/issues/oilspill/legislation.shtml">legislation</a>
to change that and have set up a <a href="http://pingree.house.gov/issues/oilspill/counter.shtml">tool</a>
on my web site to remind oil companies that the meter’s running. </p><div>
<br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><p>My legislation would force BP—and any other oil company in the
future—to pay royalties on all the oil it spills. It’s not enough to
have them pay for the environmental damage; they need to be held
responsible for the very limited, very valuable natural resource they
are wasting. BP has leased the right to drill oil belonging to the
American people, and I think that whether they refine it or spill it,
they still owe us for it.</p></div></div></body></html>